ظ (called Ẓāʾ) is the 17th letter in the Arabic alphabet. It is written as ظ in its isolated form. This letter is used in Arabic and other languages that use the Arabic script.
The letter ظ represents a voiced pharyngealized alveolar fricative sound. This means it is pronounced by constricting the throat and making a “z” sound. It is similar to the English “z” but with a deeper, more guttural sound.
Example: The word “ظَهر” (ẓuhr) means “back” or “afternoon” in Arabic and is pronounced like “ẓuhr”.
Common Words: The letter ظ appears in many common Arabic words.
Example: “ظَريف” (ẓarīf) means “nice” or “charming”.
Another example: “ظُلم” (ẓulm) means “injustice”.
The letter ظ changes its shape depending on its position in a word:
The letter ظ has special codes in computers:
These codes are used to represent the letter in digital text.
In Arabizi, a system used to write Arabic using the Latin alphabet and numbers, the letter ظ is represented by the number 6’. This helps people type Arabic sounds on keyboards that do not have Arabic letters.